Brisbane Festival installation art to breed like rabbits

Brisbane Festival artistic director Noel Staunton and artist Stormie Mills welcome the first of a number of "bunnies", sculptures that will be popping up around town during this year's event. Photo: Vicki Winter

Street artist Stormie Mills had an early and stealthy start to Friday morning.

“As sneaky as you can be with a four-metre-high pink bunny on the back of a truck,” he laughs.

The Perth-based artist is the creator of the Brisbane Festival's signature public art installation – and it's set to breed like rabbits, although the exact number of bunnies and their locations will be kept under wraps.

You wascally wabbit... Brisbane Festival artistic director Noel Staunton and artist Stormie Mills welcome the first of Mills' bunnies to Westfield Carindale. A number of them will pop up during this year's festival. Photo: Vicki Winter

Mills met the festival's artistic director, Noel Staunton, several years ago and later sent him a toy vinyl bunny as a Christmas gift.

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“He called me and said: 'We should do something like this but bigger',” Mills says.

“We wanted to do something that had strength to it but was also fun.”

The bubblegum-pink bunnies were made locally and cast out of polyurethane in several pieces for the legs and body, feet, head, arms and ears.

“It's like a vinyl toy in a sense, but a bit tougher and certainly a whole lot larger,” Mills says.

The pieces were assembled on an internal steel and plastic sub-frame.

“The last step is that somebody goes in and tightens everything up from the inside, crawls back out the bunny's bum and we glue the tail on,” he says, laughing.

“That wasn't my job!”

Staunton says this is the first time the festival has embarked on such a large-scale visual arts project.

“Stormie Mills is known around the globe for his iconic street art and these unmissable installations are an evolution of a constant character from his work,” Staunton says.

“One of the great things about these installations is that a child can see one thing and an adult can see something different. However, they will both share a common experience.”

Mills says he has recently discovered that keeping rabbits as pets in Queensland is illegal.

"But that's the thing with art and projects like this – they allow you to think about things differently," he says. "So maybe through this process people might think of bunnies as less horrific – maybe they'll just go back to being cute, fluffy animals."

He hopes Brisbane residents will interact with the faceless rabbits by taking photos with them, posting them on social media (using hashtags like #bnefest) and even giving them names.

“Engage in the process, create your own stories, enjoy the respite from daily life for a second.”

If you spot a giant bunny on the loose, snap a photo and send it to scoop@brisbanetimes.com.au, telling us where and when.